
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Replication Materials
# 
# title: Coalition Size, Direct Democracy, and Public Spending
# journal: Journal of Public Policy
# authors: Patrick Emmenegger, Lucas Leemann, and André Walter
# date: Sept 2020
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------





### Abstract #######################################################################

## This article contributes to the literature on direct democracy and public spending
## in two ways. First, we explore how direct democratic institutions interact with a
## specific aspect of the respresentative system, the size of the governing coalition, to
## influence public spending. Second, based on newly collected data, we examine the
## relationship between three different direct democratic institutions, coalition size,
## and public spending over the period from 1860 to 2015. Empirically, we find that
## initiatives increase the size of the public sector under single-party governments,
## but this positive relationship disappears as coalition size increases. In contrast,
## we find that financial referendums slow down the growth of public spending, while
## law referendums are not systematically associated with public spending. Finally,
## we find that the relationship between direct democratic institutions, coalition size,
## and public spending does not change over time despite the long period under investigation.



### Content #######################################################################

# Code to replicate all results in the original manuscript. 

# The file "00_a_RUN THIS FILE.R" will execute all necessary code and 
# all results are written into the sub-directory "out/".

# The sub-directory "in" contains the data.
  

### Technical Details ###############################################################

# Analysis can be run on a single core.

# Code was run on R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22) -- "Taking Off Again".

# library(openxlsx)     # CRAN v4.1.5
# library(lmtest)       # CRAN v0.9-37
# library(dplyr)        # CRAN v1.0.2
# library(tidyr)        # CRAN v1.1.1
# library(ggplot2)      # CRAN v3.3.2
# library(multiwayvcov) # CRAN v1.2.3
# library(sandwich)     # CRAN v2.5-1
# library(car)          # CRAN v3.0-9
# library(lfe)          # CRAN v2.8-5.1
# library(cowplot)      # CRAN v1.0.0
# library(MASS)         # CRAN v7.3-52
# library(extrafont)    # CRAN v0.17
# library(AER)          # CRAN v1.2-9   
# library(texreg)       # CRAN v1.37.5 
# library(psych)        # CRAN v2.0.7
# library(lme4)         # CRAN v1.1-23
# library(brms)         # CRAN v2.13.5   

# Machine: MacBook Pro, 3.5 GHz dual core i7, 16 GB, OS Catalina (10.15.6).

# Runtime 
#> end.time - start.time
# Time difference of 7.862703 mins



